Zorro the gay blade offensive
Psychotronic Pride: Hamilton
No! Not that Hamilton, George Hamilton, the perpetually tanned star of both the big and small screen who won a Golden Globe Award for his performance in Crime and Punishment USA (1969). Not actually acknowledged for comedy, in the late 1970s and prior 1980s, George made two comical films that highlighted his wit and comic timing. The first, 1979s Love at First Gnaw and then specifically for Pride Month, 1981s Zorro: The Gay Blade.
Love at First Bite (1979)
After centuries of terrorizing the people of Romania, the Romanian Communist Party evicts Count Vlad Dracula (George Hamilton) and his assistant, Renfield (Arte Johnson) from his family castle so it can be used as a Olympic Sports training facility. The pair decide to take this opportunity to travel to modern day (1979) Fresh York City to discover Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James), whom Dracula believes is the reincarnation of his true love, Mina Harker. Once there, the overly romantic Dracula has a hard time adjusting to the modern earth and must contend with Cindy’s sort of lover Dr. Jeffrey Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin) who is a descendant of the Van Helsing family and sees Dracula for w
Comedy Tuesday
After having a huge triumph with the Dracula spoof “Love at First Bite”, George Hamilton returned to the comedy spoof notion with this 1981 swashbuckler. It failed to strike the same chord with audiences, but it has a lot going for it despite being largely forgotten as time marches on. Maybe it’s just me but I mostly enjoyed the films of 1981 that were throwbacks to an earlier era. “Body Heat”, “Clash of the Titans” and “The Legend of the Lone Ranger” were all inspired by genres of the past. “Body Heat” updated noir, “titans” allowed Ray Harryhausen one last wonderful hurrah, and “Lone Ranger” tried to bring advocate the traditional western. “Zorro: The Gay Blade” plays with the swashbuckler the same way, both spoofing it’s tropes but also mimicking them to produce a satisfying adventure production. You know their heart was in it when:
The film’s opening dedication states: “This film is consecrated to Rouben Mamoulian and the other great filmmakers whose past gives us our future”. The movie opens with a black-and-white clip from Th
7/10
Zorro to the extreme
Tyrone Power in The Mark of Zorro plays a foppish character designed to throw off suspicion that he is, in fact, the legendary Zorro. George Hamilton in an Oscar-worthy performance (if they gave an award for comedy - which they don't!) plays Zorro who is injured and has to rely on his twin brother to stand in. George Hamilton as Bunny Wigglesworth is a riot. He is flamboyantly gay and wears lemon, plum, and scarlet instead of Zorro Jet. He also likes to use a whip, which is not entirely out of character for Zorro, as he is as adept with the tail as he is with the foil. This is an entertaining farce that Zorro fans, Hamilton fans and others will enjoy. An excellent supporting cast includes Lauren Hutton, Brenda Vaccaro, and Ron Leibman.
7/10
Flamboyant, and a lot of fun
George Hamilton is very funny, both as the "serious" twin and his outrageous brother. The script is witty and no more idiotic than any other Zorro feature. The score is excellent, stirring in the chase and fight scenes, appropriately dreamy in the tender moments. I believe that the main theme is lifted from a classical composition and adapted
Historically Speaking
While many these days default to thinking of the term gay blade as an offensive comment made about flamboyant homosexuals, the word gay didn’t just one day adopt that meaning. The pos has always had a second meaning that dates back to 1637 where the secondary meaning was defined as being addicted to social pleasures and dissipation. In other words, the gay life was a life of loose morals and so males and females who were inclined to leading immoral lives were said to be gay. It only took three hundred more years for the synonyms to refer to male homosexuals.
When the term gay bladefirst began showing up in literature, it had nothing to do with being addicted to social pleasures. It referred to a gallant young dude who was usually adept as a swordsman. Even though there were other connotations for gay blade over the years, the more chivalrous meaning still managed to survive into the 20th century.
Back on May 27, 1981 newspapers were sharing the news that George Hamilton refused to change the identify of us upcoming Zorro movie even when the people backing the film objected to its title. He made it transparent that as far as he was conc
Comedy’s Test of Time
I love a lot of old things. I like listening to Jack Benny, I watch elderly Danny Kaye movies, I think shadowy and white comedy is the funniest. Uncle Miltie makes me laugh so hard I wail. I’m basically arrange for comedy in the wrong era, but that’s okay.
The problem with it is that the comedy I favor can be insulting. Take Zorro: The Gay Blade for example. I recently had a present cert for DVDs on Amazon, so I grabbed that one along with La Cage Aux Folles and The Birdcage. I’m sure you picked up on the theme there, I needed some more male lover comedy in my life. But the problem with all three movies, even the modern one, is that they can be terribly offensive to people. They’re campy, they’re racist, they produce brutal use of sterotypes and I find them absolutely hilarious.
I describe Zorro: The Gay Blade as follows: Don Diego de la Vega finds out that his father was the amazing Zorro, but has died. Don Diego takes up the mantle of Zorro only to part his leg and calls on his identical twin brother to help act Zorro … Bunny Wigglesworth.
We have the limp-wristed gay stereotype, exacerbated by the fact that Bunny is in the Br